Bus routes put to test

The outcome on Day One of the Chicago Transit Authority's experiment to improve lakeshore express service to the Loop depended on which bus commuters rode Tuesday.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so happy. My commute is going to be cut by like 10 minutes," gushed Tricia Wertheim as she waited for only several minutes at Irving Park Road and Marine Drive for a newly rerouted No. 145 Wilson/Michigan Express bus to take her to her marketing job on Superior Street.

On the South Side, Thelma Gant waited more than 30 minutes for a No. 28 Stony Island Express bus at 67th Street and Stony Island Avenue. The experience left her ready to switch back to riding the Red Line train and transferring to a bus.

"This would've been just perfect, because I'd just have to take one bus," Gant, who works at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center, said of the extended No. 28 route. "But I don't know if I can rely on this."

A crowd of Kenwood Academy students also was stranded at the bus stop when three No. 28 buses, each one almost completely full, finally arrived at 7:35 a.m.

CTA officials said they were aware the transition didn't go like clockwork, but they previously said routes and schedules would be adjusted over the six-month trial period. A CTA manager counting passengers at a North Side location said the tallies would be used to tweak service starting Wednesday.

The most complaints about delays or long waits were received from riders of the No. 145, the No. 146 Inner Drive/Michigan Express, the No. 3 King Drive and the No. 3L King Drive Limited, CTA official Richard Winston said. He said sources of the problems had not been identified, but he said the CTA's ongoing contract dispute with the bus drivers union had no negative impact on service Tuesday.

The transit agency put 14 extra buses and additional supervisors on the streets and dispatched about 25 "volunteer" CTA office workers at key intersections to assist riders, prompting the most hardened commuters to wonder exactly how long the passenger-friendly offensive would last.

CTA officials said additional staff members would hand out schedule pamphlets and give directions, including to bus drivers, at least until early next week.

Some buses cruised to their destinations in record times along the streamlined routes during the rush periods. Other buses were bunched bumper to bumper, as they normally are.

Some riders accustomed to standing found a seat; others were packed like sardines in a tin.

For Barbara Stein, a trip downtown that used to take a half-hour on the former No. 145 route, which no longer serves her apartment building at 3750 N. Lake Shore Drive, took an hour Tuesday on the No. 151 Sheridan. She took the No. 151 after waiting 20 minutes without a No. 146 arriving.

"By the time we got to the Water Tower, passengers were packed in like sardines and complaining," said Stein, a retiree who traveled after the morning rush. "This is especially hard on elderly people who are a large part of this community."

Other riders reported the No. 143 Stockton/Michigan Express, one of three new North Side express routes, was AWOL on Tuesday. The route is supposed to operate every 10 minutes during rush periods, but Eric McGee, a human resources consultant, waited at Wrightwood Avenue and Stockton Drive for 25 minutes before bailing to a No. 151, which he said was "just as crowded as ever."